Notes and quotes from Mark Kingston's availability

South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston addressed the media for the first time since the season ended Tuesday.

The Gamecocks are coming off a rough 2022 for a lot of reasons. Over the course of the almost 30-minute availability, Kingston touched on a bevy of topics.

Here are a few things he mentioned.

Kingston: Gamecocks are ‘right there’

South Carolina’s head coach took some solace watching Ole Miss win the national title. The Gamecocks finished just one game back of the Rebels in the SEC standings and won the series against them at Founders Park.

He said there were “a lot of parallels” to the Rebels and South Carolina this season. The goal now is, he said, to get healthy and try to add pieces to the roster to feel better about where they are heading into the 2023 season.

“It’s amazing how close you are. As much as we battled that adversity you watch us beat a team that won a national championship,” Kingston said. “We need to improve in some areas, and we’ve done that over the last month in the additions we’ve made. We’re very confident about that.” 

Where South Carolina needs to improve

Injuries played a role, but the Gamecocks had struggles outside of that both on the mound and at the plate.

South Carolina had inconsistent pitching and ultimately finished at or near the bottom in most offensive categories. The top half of the lineup was relatively productive, but the bottom wasn’t.

And the Gamecocks are expected to lose three of their top five hitters and potentially four.

With that being said, Kingston really wanted to try and improve everything on the team to limit any chinks in the Gamecocks’ armor.

“I want every part of our team to be better than it was this year. It wasn’t all pitching and it wasn’t all offensive. I think the defense was very solid for the great majority of the year,” Kingston said.

“I think we can improve in every area of our team based on last year’s team. Knowing we won 13 games in the league and knowing we’re going to improve in every part of our team significantly in my mind, it gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.”

The transfer portal class

The Gamecocks are incredibly active in the transfer portal, largely on the offensive side of the ball.

It’s a mix of productive hitters and some highly thought of high school prospects who haven’t clicked at the college level.

Kingston is very high on what South Carolina is bringing in to add to last year’s team.

The Gamecocks needed to be tenacious in the transfer portal, something that was by design with the hopes of getting better quicker.

“Where we are right now, we might have to rely on it more than we will a year from now or two years from now. Where we are right now, we felt we needed to be very aggressive in the portal,” Kingston said.

“You’re starting to see names out there. We’re signing really good names out of the portal that are really going to help us. They’re filling what our needs are. They’re filling what our wants are in terms of taking it to where we want it to be.”

Other notes

–South Carolina’s injured pitchers are still on schedule to be back at or near Opening Day. Both Jack Mahoney and Jackson Phipps are on schedule and will likely be back by the start of the season. James Hicks, who threw two games into the season, might not be ready for week one but should be available early in the year. All three are coming off Tommy John surgery and will be major factors in the pitching staff.

–There will be some of the 2022 signing class impacted by the MLB Draft. The Gamecocks have two major names currently getting draft looks in third baseman Ethan Petry and right-hander Eli Jerzembeck.